Ich Bin’s - it’s true. Rob Bottin (who worked on The Howling and The Fog) is the one who created the Thing in its many incarnations, along with storyboard artist Mike Ploog.
Speaking of Rob Bottin, am I the only one who thinks his interviews were the best part of the documentary on the DVD? I mean he really got excited talking about what he did and you could tell that he loved doing the film. When you get interviews or commentary tracks of people who enjoy themselves that much, that is when you savor DVD technology.
No kidding, Semp. He didn’t seem like working in huge movies with big names was old hat to him, he sounded the way I would if I got to work alongside my heroes and influences. He sounded like he’s still genuinely excited about that stuff. I loved it!
Ah hell, if we’re rattling off our favorite quotes and scenes I’ll throw in a few of mine:
(Both from MacReady)
“Why don’t we just wait here for a while…see what happens…” (final line of the movie)
“First goddamn week of winter.”
Palmer:
“It’s Chariots of the Gods, man. They’re fallin’ outta the sky like flies.”
Most realistically protrayed scene in any horror movie was after the crew lets Nauls in through the door. Nauls says he found torn up clothes of MacReady’s while searching Mac’s shack (why did he have his own shack?) and then lost MacReady in the storm and cut the rope leading back to the base. The doorknob starts turning as something is trying to get in. Some argue that they should let him in and take a chance of him being infected. Childs (the de facto leader with the flamethrower) says no, nobody could’ve made it back to the door without a line to guide them. One member pipes up and asks “But what if we’re wrong?” Childs responds emphatically “Well then we’re wrong!” This says a lot about his character. He’s willing to let a trusted and possibly innocent comrade die inches away than risk the thing wreaking havoc again inside. I still get chills when Childs says his line.
It’s clobbering time!
I just re-read the OP. Joe_Cool, what movie tied The Thing for your second favorite? And what’s your all-time favorite?
Ah, My other 2nd favorite is The Shining. Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, and Jack Nicholson at their finest. Even after 20 years, still spooky.
And my favorite of all time is the Dead trilogy (Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead) by George Romero. Yeah, I know it’s 3 movies, but they’re all part of the same story, so I count them together as my favorite.
And if I had to pick ten DVDs to take with me to a desert island (or a weather station in Antarctica haha), that’s the first 5 I’d pull. 
And re: the scene where Childs is willing to burn MacReady, that’s where the sublime camerawork I was talking about in the OP happens. If you pay close attention, Palmer and Norris, the two who are yelling the loudest to kill Mac are both Things already - and I believe they are the first two infected.Hard to believe I originally thought that the Thing was just a parasite and not intelligent. If you watch closely, during that whole incident, they are on camera together several times, and there’s one shot where they just stand there looking at each other like “what now?” while everybody yells. Awesome scene if you know what to look for. Watch the movie again, and watch those two throughout. There are lots of small hints in their behavior throughout.
Damn, talk about the fight against ignorance. I set out to prove you wrong, all of you, DAMN YOU (shaking fist in air), but, alas, you are right. I have remembered this incorrectly for the last twenty frickin years. So just give me a minute to change the name on my shrine…
My information came from an article in a magazine from that era, and in my youthful vigor, I just latched on to the wrong name, since Rick and Rob did work together for a time. I can’t remeber my Mom’s birthday either. Crap. Looking at my post, I got the two of them completely intermingled…Double crap.
That’s something that always bothered me (not homoerotic tension; that was a joke™).
The camp is a thousand miles from the coast, way, way inside the Antarctic Circle; if winter has begun (June 21 or thereabouts), then it should be dark all the time, from beginning to end of the movie.
In the Campbell story, MacReady had his own shack because he was the meteorologist, and in fact it does look like a weather shack in the movie. Of course, a helicopter pilot would be keenly interested in the weather; maybe he has assigned quarters in the main building but prefers to hang out in the weather shack and drink bourbon.
I like the variety of personal appearances among the men; after months of isolation, some of them are scruffy, unshaven, probably don’t bathe too often (like Mac), and others are neatly groomed and dressed (like Garry), and perhaps maintain their personal appearance as a way of dealing with boredom and depression.
That could be a relative term. He may have meant “first week of the snowy season”. Much like “summer” meaning the hot part of the year yet it may not necessarily occur in the same months as other parts of the same hemisphere (summer in San Francisco occurs about the first 3 weeks in September, here in the midwest it’s June - August).
Okay, since we’re analyzing the film now, what were the occupations of the characters? I had never really thought that Mac might be anything other than just the helicopter pilot until you mentioned it. Of course a pilot would have more than just passing knowledge of weather patterns than the average Joe. I was thinking Bennings was the meteorologist since he gave a weather report to Mac before he went out to the Norwegian base. I’d assume that most of the characters at least knew how to man the meterological machinery (though not be able to analyze the data or position the radars) and operate the radio. Here’s a rundown of what I gathered was each person’s job:
MacReady: Helicopter pilot/Meteorologist(?)
Garry: Base commander/Meteorologist(?)
Blair: Doctor
Doc Copper: Doctor
Bennings: Meteorologist
Norris: Geologist
Windows: Radio operator
Palmer: Radio operator(?)
Clark: Dog handler
Childs: Heavy machinery operator(?)/Supply and storage guy(?)
Nauls: Cook
Fuchs: ???
We may have seen characters only performing their secondary duties (like Nauls), I dunno. And several of the characters looked to MacReady for guidance rather than Garry (who was supposedly in charge).
Does anybody else find it amazing that none of the people who investigated the Norwegian camp and spaceship dig came back with any trinkets from inside the ship? I think it clearly shows two of them going inside the hatch in the center of the saucer. Surely they would’ve anything (besides the body and videotapes) that was brought back laid out on a table so everyone could gawk at it.
They did bring back some metal scraps, presumably from the spaceship. Granted, it’s not much trinket-wise, but it may be all they could manage with limited space on the helicopter, and limited time to gather stuff, what with the approaching storm and all.
One of the more interesting factoids from the DVD commentary is that the devastated Norwegian camp is actually the American camp, filmed after it was blown up for the movie’s finale.
My favorite quote is from MacReady, during his “interrogation” upon returning from the Norwegian camp. Everyone is in the rec room, and several of the guys are asking MacReady all sorts of questions about the “things”. He responds (paraphrasing), “I don’t know, 'cause they’re different 'n us! 'Cause they’re from outer space! What are you asking me for?! You should be asking him! <points to Blair>”
That scene also illustrates that MacReady seems to be the de facto top dog, even though Garry is the nominal commander (later reinforced when he actually assumes command).
Well, as long as I’m asking questions about the movie I’ll throw out a few more.
What is the purpose of a US weather station in the Antarctic? Does the US Weather Service really get that much useful information from the South Pole? Does a lot of major weather phenomenon begin or happen around Antarctica? I’m not being sarcastic here, I just really don’t know the answers.
What was the purpose of the Norwegian base? Did the US Weather Service keep its weather data so secretive that Norway had to setup it’s own base nearby?
Did anyone else find it strange that they had a computer that was loaded with software that could simulate cell reproduction rates? Why would a weather station need that? I assumed that Copper and Blair were general practitioners (and surgeons in an emergency) and were not there to study the indigenous life (pissed off thawed out aliens included ).
MacReady living in his own private shack outside the base didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense either. In a blizzard he would be snowed in (for possibly days/weeks at a time). I thought it simply showed that he was his own man and enhanced his cowboy persona in the face of authority (Garry). Perhaps that’s why the rest of the camp looked up to him.
Anyone want to take a SWAG at any of these?
Well, Mac isn’t a meteorologist. He’s just a pilot. We are actually told this in the DVD commentary. That’s also why he has his own shack. Maybe they just didn’t want to get mixed up with a guy like him. because he’s a loner. A rebel. (hah!)
Garry is the base commander, as he has the keys and the gun. And he formally turns control over to Mac after Windows ran to get a shotgun.
Blair is a biologist, not a doctor. That explains why he has the cellular simulation computer. John Carpenter himself confirms this in the commentary.
Bennings is definitely the meteorologist. He’s the one everybody asked about whether it was safe to fly to the other base in that weather.
Palmer is also a pilot. He offers to fly Doc Copper out to the crazy Swedes’ (they’re Norwegian!) base.
Childs - no idea. I did notice that he shares quarters with Palmer though. Maybe they’re both heavy equipment operators?
Fuchs was working in the lab with Blair. Beyond that I don’t know any indication of what his job might be. I’m watching it again now. We think he may be a second geologist or something.
Norris is probably a geologist. He is the one they ask about the age of the ship, and who estimates that the ice was 100,000 years old.
Nauls obviously is the cook. I can’t help but think he has another job, as I have trouble believing that they would go to the expense of sending a guy who is just a cook to a science base in Antarctica. But again, I don’t see any indication yet. I was going to say his main job was “token black guy,” but Childs is black too.
Obviously Windows is the radio guy.
Obviously Clark is the animal handler.
Doc Copper - no clue. haha! Just kidding.
I think they turned to Mac for leadership just because he had the coolest head and was the most together when the crisis hit.
And nobody was cut off from the rest. The different buildings were connected by tunnels.
You and I were thinking along the same lines. I too was going to say that Nauls was the token black guy before I remembered Childs. I remember when I first saw this movie that the only other serious horror film I’d seen where a black man is a strong lead character that actually makes it to the end is (surprise! Your favorite!) Night of the Living Dead.
I think you’re right about Blair being a biologist. Question is, what the hell do they need a biologist for in Antarctica? There wasn’t any plant or animal life for him to study other than the dogs and humans (and Things).
Thinking more about Childs I’m betting he was a generator and other heavy equipment mechanic besides being an operator. He is the one they ask to bring the flame thrower to the dog kennel.
Having been in the military I know that small teams of people benefit from having at least one other person with a skill redundant of that of another. Palmer may have indeed been a backup pilot (makes sense) and I was thinking Garry may have had military training that involved pilot skills (nothing in the movie to back that up though). Or maybe he was a mediocre weather man or geologist. Blair and Copper could back each other up in their fields probably.
What was the purpose of the dogs do you think? It didn’t look like they needed to travel from the base for anything (well, normally they wouldn’t). They weren’t used for guarding the camp (like they were any match for the Thing anyway. ). Backup transportation would’ve been the SnowCat I would think.
Which leads me back to the Norwegian base. They may not have been a weather station after all. Perhaps they were investigating the land mass itself for ice floe activity or polar cap melting (hey, it was the 80s). That would explain why they had so much explosives on hand as well as excavation equipment. They were able to dig up an awful lot of ice if they were just a weather station.
IIRC (been several months since last viewing), Mac’s shack was elevated on poles (to avoid snow drifts maybe?) so I don’t think it was connected by a tunnel. If it was there would have been no need for the scene where Nauls stumbles through the door claiming he cut Mac loose.
Ack. I know when you start delving into a movie like this too deeply it can start to lose its magic.
My assumption, based on purely nothing but a gut feeling from observing the characters, was that Fuchs was possibly/probably Blair’s grad student - i.e. a doctoral student in biology. He certainly seemed to be Blair’s biggest advocate, which suggested a close student/mentor relationship and he seemed to be assisting Doc and Blair during the dissection.
And you’d be surprised how much there is to study biologically down there. Well, okay, not that much ;). But there are unique cold-resistant bacteria, fungi, and even insects inland and some of the coastal areas are teeming with wildlife ( penguin’s et al ).
I assume the Norwegian base was nearby because for geopolitical reasons, near the border between different claimed areas. Few people realize this but Norway historically has claimed a huge chunk of Antarctica as part of their territory ( Queen Maud’s Land ). Also it makes sense to string bases like that near each for mutual support in emergencies.
- Tamerlane
Another possibility ( less likely in my opinion ) is that Blair and Fuchs aren’t bacteriologists or mammalogists or what have you, but instead are human physiologists studying the effects of extreme climate conditions on the human body. Say blood serotonin levels during the Antarctic winter and the like. In that case they were along to monitor the base inhabitants including themselves.
But like I said, I don’t think such a stretch is necessary. Plenty of other things to study down there.
- Tamerlane
Yeah I was actually going to suggest that maybe they were drilling ice cores and giving them to Blair to analyze for cellular life. That would certainly make the analysis software useful.
And I didn’t notice that Mac’s shack was on stilts, and further had forgotten about the scene where he was cut loose from the guide line…I guess that blows my theory. haha
Thing fans, check out:
It even has a forum. I just came across it myself, a few days ago. And then this thread here. Spooky!
Wow. Like you said, ataraxy22, great timing. I just cruised it for a few minutes but the smattering of posts I read seemed to be fairly intelligent and germane to the OPs and pretty free of l33t speak. I think I’ll register. See ya on the boards. 
I always wondered why Mac called it Outpost #31 when the sign at the beginning of the movie clearly read US Weather Station #4. Maybe now I can find out.
I’m going to have to watch the movie again now. Really, in the 20 years since, how many scary movies have you seen that do such a good job of building up tension and dread? Most of what passes for horror movies lately just try and startle you over and over instead of working on atmosphere. Also, when it comes to ensemble pieces, it was nice that everybody looked old enough for his job. (Did you see Hollow Man? It featured a team of cutting-edge, world-class scientists who all looked like 20-year-old models.)
The glacier they filmed on (along with a refrigerated Hollywood studio) worked fine, but wouldn’t it be great to film on location in Antarctica? I don’t mean a documentary, but a fictional story. You could show the sun rolling along the horizon at the equinox, then set a psychological story in the long, long night of winter… of course, the technical challenges would be pretty severe, but imagine an isolated outpost under the star-filled Antarctic sky, with meteors and aurora…